In Valor Collegiate Academy, Todd Dickson proposes a charter school that he hopes will be economically and ethnically diverse. / Mark Zaleski / The Tennessean

Written by

Joey Garrison

The Tennessean

Valor Collegiate Academy Todd Dickson visits the Casa Azafran Community Center on Friday, June 14, 2013. The center is on Nolensville Pike, a diverse area where Valor proposes to open its first in a planned network of schools. / Mark Zaleski / The Tennessean

Other proposals

Other charter proposals to go before the school board for 2014-15 openings are:

• KIPP Nashville College Prep Elementary (K-4) — planned for either East or North Nashville; would expand KIPP’s existing network of schools

• Nashville Academy of Computer Science (5-8) — a second school from Nashville Prep, a 2-year-old middle school

• Explore! Community School (K-8) — sponsored by East Nashville’s Martha O’Bryan Center, which already manages the charter East End Prep

• Thurgood Marshall School of Career Development (9-12) — proposed by former Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton’s W.E.B. Dubois Consortium of Charter Schools organization; would target students who have gone through the juvenile justice system

• Highest percentage of free and reduced-price lunch*: Drexel Prep, East End Prep, Smithson Craighead Academy, all more than 95 percent

* Free and reduced-price lunch statistics are based on Tennessee Department of Education’s 2012 Report Card

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When Phoenix-based Great Hearts Academies pitched a charter school in West Nashville after a push by affluent parents, it sparked a raging debate last summer.

Now, a year later, another charter group is looking to break new ground here by tailoring a school for all economic backgrounds, including middle and upper class — and this time, there are no signs of a looming fight.

In fact, some are already praising it for entering Nashville in a way Great Hearts didn’t.

Valor Collegiate Academy, a fifth- through 12th-grade school proposed by California transplant Todd Dickson, whom Mayor Karl Dean personally recruited to Nashville, is one of six charter applications set for consideration at the Metro school board’s June 25 meeting.

In a city where students at publicly financed, privately led charters are almost exclusively low-income, Dickson’s plan sticks out: He wants to create a “mixed model” both ethnically and economically.

“My hope is that it would be a school that parents from any background would be interested in,” said Dickson, who has lived in Nashville for the past 10 months, working as a fellow at the Tennessee Charter School Incubator.

Dickson is planning a school modeled after Summit Preparatory, the charter network he founded a decade ago in Redwood City, Calif. It would be only 50 percent to 60 percent low-income students, defined as those who qualify for federal free and reduced-price lunches. At Summit, the figure is 45 percent.

In Metro, where 19 charters will operate next school year with an estimated 4,600 students, the percentage of low-income students at individual schools ranges from 84 to nearly 100 percent.

Great Hearts also sought to widen its student base beyond low-income students. Its most vocal backers were Green Hills-area parents who saw it as an alternative to expensive private schools or academic magnets with long waiting lists. Critics, however, questioned its commitment to diversity, fearing it might trigger an exodus of affluent white students from traditional and private schools.

The Great Hearts plan was rejected, even after the state ordered the Metro school board to approve it.

Entering with care

Dickson, 42, who owned a real estate company before entering education, has adopted an opposite approach and vision to go along with a plan that relies on a calendar with more days for teachers’ professional development.

While Great Hearts often reacted to diversity concerns, Valor uses the word throughout its 250-page application — Dickson says it’s key to his entire plan. And while the former sought to ensure diversity by placing its five schools in all parts of the city, Valor has selected the diverse Nolensville Pike area for its first in a planned network of schools.

Busing, which Great Hearts had offered on a limited basis, would be available to all students at Valor.

“Todd Dickson and Valor have probably become a case study in terms of how you enter a community with thought and care,” said Will Pinkston, who serves as the board’s liaison with Metro’s charter review committee, which has recommended Valor‘s approval.

In the aftermath of last year’s Great Hearts’ feud — which culminated with the state imposing a $3.4 million fine on Metro — the school board adopted a new diversity plan. It includes a goal of keeping the racial diversity at schools within the district’s range. Two-thirds of students, it says, should qualify for free and reduced lunches.

Alan Coverstone, who oversees Metro’s charter schools, called the Valor proposal a “good plan” but stressed the ultimate objective isn’t just diversity: “We should adopt the model that is going to deliver the results.”

Valor’s approval would mark a clear win for Dean, the city’s top champion of charters. Dean, who also backed Great Hearts, said Dickson’s “track record for advancing academic achievement for all students, regardless of circumstance or ZIP code” would benefit Nashville.

'A guinea pig experiment'

Next week, the board could be wanting to prove it isn’t hostile to charters — only against bad ones — having dodged state legislation that would have handed the state the power to approve charters that are denied locally. The bill, inspired by its Great Hearts denial and backed by Dean, is likely to be on the table again in 2014 after it died this session.

The challenge, of course, for Valor is whether it can actually create the mixed-income model it desires. Mandating income quotas is difficult to maneuver legally, Dickson said. He plans to market the school aggressively, but there aren’t any assurances.

Other charters in south Davidson County are racially diverse, but they are largely low-income. Are non-poor white parents going to embrace a school on Nolensville Pike?

“If done the way it’s supposed to be done, with actual mixed-income levels and truly a diverse model, then absolutely, parents will be interested in that,” said Haley Dale, a Julia Green Elementary School parent who supported Great Hearts. “But it’s a guinea pig experiment, really.”